Cognitive Analysis of Children's Mathematics Difficulties

The aim of the study is to investigate the informal and formal mathematical knowledge of children suffering from "mathematics difficulty" (MD). The research involves comparisons among three groups: fourth-grade children performing poorly in mathematics but normal in intelligence; fourth-grade peers matched for intelligence but experiencing no apparent difficulties in mathematics; and a randomly selected group of third graders. These children were individually presented with a large number of tasks designed to measure key mathematical concepts and skills. The findings suggest that: (1) MD children are not seriously deficient in key informal mathematical concepts and skills; (2) MD children seem to have elementary concepts of base ten notation but experience difficulty in related enumeration skills, particularly when large numbers are involved; (3) MD children's calculational errors often result from common error strategies; (4) MD children display severe difficulty in recalling common addition facts; and (...